In autumn 2024, Robbie Cornelissen (1954) spent three months in Dale i Sunnfjord, Norway, a residency surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and fjords next to the open sea. The abundant nature, landscapes and silence were influential as was the studio with its high ceiling and daylight streaming in through large windows. Given the height of the room, Robbie Cornelissen created long, vertical drawings, starting from a smaller sheet in the centre that was gradually expanded.

Some years ago already Robbie Cornelissen’s focus shifted from architectural spaces with a gravitating central perspective into more undefined spaces where there is rather a movement from inside to the outside. These derive from his studies of clouds where not the line but the volume is decisive and the pencil is replaced by graphite powder. An early work from this Cloud series is based on a photo of the mushroom-shaped cloud resulting from the hydrogen bomb test at the Bikini Atoll. Later natural clouds like the one from the volcanic eruption at Surtsey in Iceland followed, awe inspiring because of their beauty and destructive power.